We arrived in Athens early in the morning. The Lufthansa Business Lounge was right next to the Aegean Lounge. We would be flying via Munich and Frankfurt at some point in the remainder of the trip and would have other opportunities to try the Lufthansa Business Lounge, so we decided to visit the Aegean Lounge here.
It wasn’t crowded, but there were quite a few people around. They had a huge spread of food and drinks. We freshened up and had a quick breakfast. The lounge had luggage lockers, something we found missing in Lisbon. So we consolidated our bags and took just one backpack and headed out to see Athens.
We took the X95 bus from the airport to the city and it took a little over an hour for us to reach there, giving us a chance to have a quick nap. We got down at Syntagma Square and started to walk towards Monastiraki Square. We saw the Statue of St. Chrysostom Smyrna in the park around the Holy Metropolitan Church of the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary.
The church was a mixture of Greco-Byzantine and neoclassical architecture. The entrance had an intricate mural above the main door. There was also a large courtyard in front of it which had a Statue of Archbishop Damaskinos Papandreou.
Next we headed to see the Church of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary - Panagia Kapnikarea. It was interesting to see an ancient structure in Byzantine architecture surrounded by modern urban buildings. This was said to be one of the oldest Greek Orthodox churches in the city.
We reached Monastiraki Square and decided to sign up for the New Athens Free Tour 🔗. We waited for a few minutes for people to assemble and started off with our tour guide. It was a nice way to spend a few hours and our tour finished near the entrance to the Acropolis.
We headed to Areopagus Hill to get a different view of the Acropolis and Athens. The rocks were slippery and you had to be careful walking around.
I also took a small hike up to Philopappos Hill. It was not easy to find the right path to reach the top but eventually I made it and the views of the Acropolis and Athens from the lookout point were superb.
We then walked back towards Syntagma Square and saw Hadrian’s Arch on the way. It is a gateway with columns named after the Roman emperor. We also got a glimpse of the Temple of Olympian Zeus nearby.
Walking further we saw the Zappeio Roman Baths, an archaeological site right next to Zappeion Garden with well preserved ancient structures.
Next was the Hellenic Parliament, an impressive but predictable-looking government building. It also had the Monument to the Unknown Soldier.
We wanted to visit a few more places, but it was very hot and we were tired so we decided to head back to the airport.
The Aegean Lounge was much more crowded now but eventually we did manage to find a place to sit and enjoy the great food spread.
When it was time for the flight, we walked to the boarding area and it was quite crowded. The gate agent was zeroing in on passengers with large carry-on bags and unless they were flying business class or had status, they were being asked to gate-check the bag. The flight was delayed and passengers with tight connections were getting anxious. Boarding started soon after the passengers from the inbound flight deplaned and the aircraft was readied for the return flight. The service consisted of water and a chocolate. We got nice views of Athens at night after take-off and we had a comfortable flight to Munich.
We had a decent amount of connecting time in Munich today, unlike the last time we ran through this airport a few days ago 🔗. We headed to the Lufthansa Senator Lounge there for a quick supper before our onward journey.
The lounge was comfortable and had a good variety of food and drinks. When it was boarding time, we headed to the gate area for our flight to Reykjavík. We tried to catch some sleep as we flew north west towards Iceland.
